Case Files
by Jinxgirl
Summary: A "case file" counselor's analysis of Faith. Was a class assignment I just rediscovered.


Author notes: I just stumbled across this on an old flash drive...I had to make a case analysis/treatment plan for a fictional character for a class. Obviously I chose Faith, couldn't turn down a golden opportunity, lol. Thought someone might find it interesting...I also did one for Legs and for Dollhouse's Adelle DeWitt in same class, so let me know if you're interested in those as well.

Disclaimer: I do not own Faith Lehane.

Name: Faith Lehane (era of "Sanctuary")

Identifying Information: Faith is a Caucasian Slayer female from Boston, Massachusetts, aged approximately 17-19. She is single, currently homeless, and of low socioeconomic status. Faith did not complete high school and is unemployed. She has no guardian or contact with her family or origin, and is childless. Faith identifies sexually as bisexual and is of high average to above average intelligence.

Presenting Problems: Faith is actively suicidal and describes herself as "nothing" and a "murdering bitch." She vacillates from feeling despair to feeling rage, and when angry, she often reacts with violence towards others. Following her accidental murder of a man, Faith repeatedly has flashbacks of his death, in which she feels like it is reoccurring. When these flashbacks occur, Faith trembles and grows tearful, finding it difficult to speak. As a result of these flashbacks, Faith has tried to avoid thoughts and feelings related to the man's death by covering up his death, refusing to discuss it, and attempting to bury her feelings. She feels estranged from others and mistrustful, and she also feels that her lifespan is so short in expectancy that it is most beneficial to herself to not follow societal rules, if this may further restrict her life. She shows outbursts of anger and hypervigilance,

Faith feels chronically empty. She shows impulsivity in sexual behavior and risk-taking actions, and she often bullies, threatens, or intimidates others, initiates physical fights, has used weapons on others, and has killed one man purposefully and deliberately severely injured or tried to kill several other people as well. She broke into a sporting goods' store and stole weaponry, then escaped police capture. Faith feels jealousy over others her age whom she judges as having more, and often displays anger and violence towards those individuals in particular. Faith describes her philosophy of life as "Want, take, have," as an indication that she feels that the only way for her to "have" anything in her life is to take it for herself, as she believes that nothing will ever be given to her without her own efforts expended to receive it.

Current Influences on Presenting Problems:

Faith accidentally killed a man while slaying vampires; as a result of this accident, and her fear that she will be blamed and punished for his death, she has gone to great lengths to attempt to cover up the man's death and her feelings about it.

Recently, Mayor Wilkins, who Faith regarded as a paternal figure, has been killed, and Faith is stunned and saddened by his loss. At Wilkins' death Faith also lost her apartment in which she had been living, and currently finds herself to be homeless. Faith is uneducated, impoverished, and currently wanted by law as well as by the friends whom she has committed violence against, and therefore is living on the run. Faith has no friends nor family to turn to for help or support. Faith is also a victim of child abuse and neglect.

Faith's mother died within the past few years, and Faith's Watcher, with whom she was close, was murdered in front of her only last year. Faith has recently felt herself to be rejected by Buffy Summers, with whom she felt a kinship and attraction towards and desired to be loved and accepted by, and the perceived rejection by Buffy and her friends increased Faith's anger and despair. Buffy's stabbing of Faith in a physical confrontation, which lead to Faith's eight month long coma, has also affected Faith's current anger and mistrust.

Previous solution attempts and results: Faith has attempted to resolve her problems by burying her feelings, hiding her mistakes, denying her feelings, desires, and mistakes, and fleeing from situations or areas in which she feels strong emotion. Faith has also attempted to solve her problems by seeking employment with Wilkins, whom she believed would protect her, and then later through lashing out at others in violence, as a form of vengeance. All of these results lead to further problems and no success. Faith then attempted employment as an assassin at Wolfram and Hart, a corrupt law firm, which also met with no success. Faith then tried to permanently end her problems through forcing another's hand at suicide; this too was unsuccessful.

Family/Social Development: Faith's father, Pat Lehane, was a member of the Irish mob and disappointed Faith as a father throughout her childhood. Pat Lehane and his wife were both alcoholics, and Faith indicated her mother to be physically abusive. She grew up in Boston in a low socioeconomic family. During her adolescence, some time after discovering that she was a Potential Slayer, Faith grew close to her Watcher. Faith's mother is deceased, and Faith's father has no contact with her.

Shortly after being called as a Slayer, Faith witnessed the violent death of her Watcher. Devastated and horrified, Faith migrated alone to Sunnydale, California, to meet the other Slayer living, Buffy Summers. Although Faith got along well with Buffy and her peers for a time, she currently has no friends and struggles in her interactions with peers, feeling as though she is never accepted and does not fit in.

Faith does not have a romantic partner, although she is sexually active and has indicated some form of attraction to Buffy Summers. Recently Faith has also suffered the loss of Richard Wilkins, whom she viewed as a father figure, and whom provided financial care for her before his death.

Faith has repeatedly attempted to trust and seek approval from figures of authority, which has resulted in her feelings of betrayal and failure when her trust is misplaced or her admired figure is lost to her.

Multicultural Issues: Faith has recently migrated from Boston to Sunnydale and is adjusting to the difference between living on the west and east coast, and in small town versus a city. Faith is also significantly less financially stable than the majority of her peers in Sunnydale, and is unable to afford the quality of life of which they are accustomed. She feels that others do not understand her in part due to the differences of their cultural upbringings and socioeconomic statuses. Faith is also a Slayer, a status which marks her as very much different from her peers. It is in part due to her impoverished city upbringing and her highly stressful life and short life expectancy as a Slayer that Faith feels she must take what she wants or needs, regardless of whether she is infringing on others' rights when she does so. Faith also has indicated bisexual inclinations which may need to be explored in treatment.

Diagnostic Summary:

Axis I: 309.91 Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

312.82 Conduct Disorder, Adolescent-Onset Type (severe)

Rule out 296.2 Major Depressive Disorder, Single Episode (moderate)

Axis II: Rule out 301.83 Borderline Personality Disorder

Axis III: Recently awakened from coma due to head injury, stabbed in torso

Axis IV: problems with primary support group, problems related to the social environment, educational problems, occupational problems, housing problems, economic problems, problems with access to health care services, problems related to interaction with the legal system, other psychosocial and environmental problems

Axis V: 10

Treatment Goals and Recommendations: The main goals of treatment for Faith are to stabilize her suicidal feelings, to settle her into a stable environment which meets her physical and psychological needs, to considerably lessen her violent reactions to emotions, and to work with her current bereavement and complicated grief over her losses. Other goals of treatment include to work with her on anger management, to teach her conflict resolution skills, to teach her methods of self-calming and help her to lessen her anxiety when exposed to triggering stimuli, to teach her positive self-talk and cognitive behavioral techniques, to work with her on problem solving skills, to explore feelings and patterns of behavior developed as a result of her childhood and recent losses, to improve her social skills, to help improve her chances of obtaining gainful employment and becoming self-sufficient, and to help her improve her self-esteem.

I recommend that Faith's main method of treatment be immediate placement in a therapeutic foster home, specifically designated for adolescents with PTSD and conduct disorder, not only because of the nature of her diagnosis and her violence towards herself and others, but also because she has shown a desire for strong and healthy relationships with adults and authority figures. When given adequate shelter, a steady routine, and firm but caring guardians, who make consequences for behavior well known and understood while also providing therapeutic interactions, Faith's low GAF score should improve quickly. Specific therapeutic practices that should be used with Faith in her foster home include trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy, grief work, progressive relaxation, rapid eye movement therapy, gradual desensitization therapy, vocational skills work, work with problem solving, anger management, and conflict resolution.


End file.
